


I'll Be Here When You Wake Up

by mmaarriaa



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Forehead Kisses, Hurt Tony Stark, Insecure Tony, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, not capitan america friendly, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-14 21:51:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19281898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmaarriaa/pseuds/mmaarriaa
Summary: Also posted on Fanfiction.netAnd then he saw him. Coming out of the orange circle. Peter seemed so scared and so, so young. He looked as if he was looking for someone. When Peter finally saw him, struggling to stay up, looking older than ever, and worryingly thin, he didn’t seem to notice. A spark of recognition passed through his eyes and Peter ran towards Tony.............................................................................................................................................................................What if all the people that were dusted returned a month after the snap? During the meeting we saw in endgame, just after Tony came back, all the dusted come back through a portal. How would an extremely weak Tony react to seeing his lost mentee?Lots of fluff and whump.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! english is not my first language so plase be nice and review! XXX

Tony looked terrible. In every sense of the word. He had just arrived to earth and was extremely thin and mentally unstable. He had lost the kid…He couldn’t even think about anything else. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Peter’s large and terrified ones begging him for help…to begging him to protect him…and he failed, as always.

He was now sitting in the meeting room with the rest of the survivors, listening to cap’s nonsense about bringing everybody back. Why couldn’t he understand that they had lost? Tony had warned him, all those years ago, but Rogers just wouldn’t listen. And because of that half of human kind was gone, transformed into a pile of ashes, and the survivors were now condemned to keep living without half of their loved ones.

He could hear the rest of the avengers talking about Thanos and he asked “Where is he now?”

Rogers was quick to answer “We don’t know”. 

Tony could feel his anger popping trough. They didn’t know. Steve then started to ask him stupid questions. Why did cap care about what Thanos had told him? They had lost… he had lost him. He avoided Steve’s questions; he couldn’t think straight. Peter’s eyes… his scared face.. he was just a kid… and he didn’t want to go.

“Tony I’m gonna need you to focus”

Tony doesn’t exactly remember what happened afterwards, but next thing he knew he was telling Steve everything he had been keeping inside for so long.

_“Liar”_

Steve had lied to Tony. And Tony had believed him. And because of that half of humanity was gone. Peter was gone. Peter was gone. Because of that lie. Peter… the future of the avengers, Tony’s protégé. He couldn’t believe he was never going to hear Peter laugh…his tiring rambling… his selflessness.

He tore the reactor off his chest. His heart was already gone anyways. Turned to dust on Titan.

“Here, take this. You find him and you put that on. You hide.”

 

A huge explosion followed. And Dr Strange’s weirs circles appeared, the Peter Quill coming out of it.

“What’s up losers?”

“It’s impossible” mumbled Steve.

Tony couldn’t keep his eyes off the circle. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t let himself hope… because the disappointment would destroy him. His brain didn’t seem to hear him though.

_It can’t be… but please… let him come back…_

Tony would give anything, anything to see the kid again. He could feel his weak body struggling to keep standing up but he needed to see.

Slowly, all the disappeared came back through Strange’s weird portal and Tony could hear people’s cries and laughs. He saw from the corner of his eye Steve and Bucky hugging. Tony was starting to feel dizzy… but he couldn’t let go, not until he was sure the kid was alive and alright.

And then he saw him. Coming out of the orange circle. Peter seemed so scared and so, so young. He looked as if he was looking for someone. When Peter finally saw him, struggling to stay up, looking older than ever, and worryingly thin… he didn’t seem to notice. A spark of recognition passed through his eyes and Peter ran towards Tony.

“Mr Stark! You will not believe what is going on! Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? Well l must have passed out ‘cause I woke up and you were gone… but Dr Strange was there right?..." 

Tony just stared at him; his eyes so filled with tears he could barely see.

“...and he was like 'it’s been 23 days come on they need us!' and then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing he does all the time…”

Tony couldn’t take it anymore and hugged Peter close, as hard as he could. His kid was safe. He was right there. Right there. He rested his cheek against Peter’s hair and took a deep breath.

“Oh my god Peter… Peter…you - you’re here” he stuttered as Peter closed his arms against his waist. Peter felt Tony’s tears in his hair and heard him start sobbing.

“Yeah Mr Stark, I’m alright, it’s fine” Peter reassured visibly confused. That only made Tony sob harder and hold him even tighter against his chest. With that movement Peter could feel his mentor’s ribs and frowning he tried to break the embrace but Tony had a firm grip on him so all he could do was separate himself a little, feeing Tony’s grip on both of his arms.

Just as he really looked at his father-figure, he noticed how bad he looked. He seemed to have aged 20 years, grey hair starting to appear. He was extremely thin, he had lost at least thirty pounds, his cheekbone standing out of his face, he was now only skin and bones. He was also slightly shaking and breathing heavily, as if he had ran a marathon. But what would haunt Peter for the rest of his life was the look in his mentor’s eyes. He seemed haunted, as a man who had seen too much, and who had lost everything. His eyes where wide open and unfocused, though staring right at Peter, as if nothing else mattered.

“Mr Stark what happened? Are you alright? I mean you are obviously not… ok that was rude…” he said starting to blush “but you know what I mean! You look as if you’d gone to hell and back and…” he was interrupted by another hug, and heard Mr Stark laughing and sobbing at the same time. He didn’t even know that was possible.

“Peter… oh god Peter…” Tony didn’t seem to be able to say anything else and as he hugged his boy, he started to shake violently and collapsed to the ground, unable to support his weight. Fortunately, Peter was very strong and was able to catch him and stop him from hurting himself.

“Mr Stark!”

Peter lowered both of them to the ground, supporting all of Tony’s weight, whose muscles didn’t seem to function at all. He sat down on the floor, positioning Tony on his lap, his mentor’s head on his shoulder. He grabbed one of Tony’s calloused hands and held it tight. He could feel all the bones.

Tony then looked at Peter, straight in the eyes, and all Peter could see was love pouring out of them. He rose the hand Peter was not holding and shaking, placed it on Peter’s cheek. His mentee leaned to the touch. Tony’s eyes began to close, he was so tired… but what if when he woke up he found out all of this was a dream? He wouldn’t survive. He knew.

“Peter…” he said, sounding as a scared child, who didn’t want to fall asleep tears pouring out of his eyes. He was looking at Peter as if he wanted to memorize every single pour of his face.

Peter just smiled and kissed his mentor’s forehead.

“It’s ok, _I’ll be here when you wake up.”_


	2. Right Here With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wave of loneliness and panic invaded him. His eyes still closed, he moved his hand, trying to gasp his lifeline, but the smaller hand was gone. Suddenly, everything came back to him. The snap. Titan. Peter. Oh god… Peter!  
> He opened his eyes and started looking for Peter in his room. But it was empty. He was all alone. Everything had been a dream. And now he was awake. Reality hit him hard. Alone. He was a failure. 
> 
> Or,  
> Tony wakes up after the snapped hav retuned, but when Peter isn't at his bedsided, he panics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> I wanted to thak every single review, I read all of them and they all mean so much! 
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you guys!
> 
> XXX

_**I wanted to give a special thanks to all the reviews, I wanted you guys to know that I read them all and that all of them mean so much! You guys encourage me to keep writing so much!** _

_Beep               beep                beep               beep_

The first thing he noticed was that a warm hand was holding his own. His brain didn’t seem to be able to function and he didn’t know where he was but that hand was reassuring and it kept him grounded. Everything would be alright if that hand was there, holding him. He was sure of it. He was feeling cold, and extremely weak but he wasn’t alone. Every single movement seemed overwhelmingly difficult and he suddenly felt a numb pain in his chest, and felt his mouth twisting as a reaction to it.

_“He’s starting to wake up…!”_

_“He is in pain, let him sleep for a little longer”_

The hand was still there, warm, small and reassuring. Everything was alright. He could feel a thumb running soft circles on his hand, and he tried to squeeze back, but he was so very tired...  the pain was slowly disappearing, and he felt his consciousness slipping away.

 

_Beep               beep               beep               beep_

_“He’s all healed, now we just have to wait for him to wake up”_

_“Are you sure he will be alright Mr Banner? Mr Thor told me…”_

The hand was still there. His anchor was there. And he could recognise that voice… he could recognize it anywhere. he didn’t know whose voice it was. But it felt like music to his ears. He needed to wake up… needed to see. Make sure _he_ was really there. He didn’t know why, but he _needed_ to see _him,_ but he couldn’t understand why, and he was so very tired…

_“… only a matter of hours now… you should really go eat something and take a shower, you have been here far too long…”_

_Beep               beep               beep               beep_

The first thing Tony noticed when he woke up was that the hand that was holding his, his anchor, was gone. A wave of loneliness and panic invaded him. His eyes still closed, he moved his hand, trying to gasp his lifeline, but the smaller hand was gone. Suddenly, everything came back to him. The snap. Titan. Peter. _Oh god… Peter!_

He opened his eyes and started looking for Peter in his room. But it was empty. He was all alone. Everything had been a dream. And now he was awake. Reality hit him hard. Alone. He was a failure. No tears came. He felt numb. He wanted to go. He didn’t want to live in a world like this. Everything had been a dream and Peter was only dust. But it had felt so very real. His hopes had been so high. He thought he would be able to hold him, invite him over for dinner, work  with him in his lab… see him graduate…

He tried to put himself in a sitting position but his arms were extremely weak and he only managed to lift his head a little. That little failure hit him like a truck, and all his emotion caught up with him. He felt burning tears forming in his eyes, and slowly wetting his cheeks. He rose a trembling hand to wipe them away. He heard himself starting to sob. He had never, in his whole life, felt so _devastated._ Peter was never there. He was sobbing so hard his chest hurt. He didn’t care, so he laid there, on his small hospital bed, hugging himself, looking for some sort of comfort while he sobbed. He heard his door opening and didn’t even bother to look at the person who was entering his room.

“Oh my god Mr stark!”

No. no. no. It was impossible. He couldn’t be. Why couldn’t his brain stop tricking him? He just wanted to die. Why couldn’t he just die? but his body didn’t seem to be listening to him and suddenly feeling a little bit stronger, he lifted his head and so the most beautiful think he had ever seen. An _angel_. His Peter. His hair was wet and messy, as if he had just taken a shower, and he wasn’t in his suit, he was just wearing a pair of jeans and a huge MIT T-shirt. But no, it was impossible.

Peter seemed to have freeze on next to the door, looking at him in shock as his mentor slowly and clumsily sat on the bed. A fine layer of sweat laying on his extremely pale skin. He seemed confused and _angry._ He hesitantly took a step toward the bed.

“No! stop it! You are not real!” screamed Tony raising his hand “Get away from me”

Peter took a step back, visibly hurt.

“Mr Stark… it’s me… your Underoos.” whispered Peter, “Why are you mad? I know I said I would be here when you woke up… b-but Mr Banner said that I needed to take a shower and eat something, and I just left for 30 min… max.  And…” Peter suddenly stopped rambling, as his mentor had covered his head with his hands and was violently shaking his head.

“No… no stop it… stop it…” Mr stank was clearly crying, his shoulders shaking “please I can’t… stop it… _please_ ”. His father figure was starting to hyperventilating, his body shaking so hardly that peter thought he might fall of the bed.

Peter didn’t know what to do. Mr Stark seemed so scared and so sad. But Peter didn’t understand why. Everything was fine. They had all come back and Thanos seemed to have disappeared. But Tony seemed to be heart broken and Peter didn’t know what to do to comfort him. He didn’t seem to want to be with him, but Peter couldn’t just leave him like this, at the verge of a panic attack. So he slowly approached him. Mr stark didn’t seem to notice, and was grabbing his head so tightly that Peter thought he might pull his hair out. So as soon as he was close enough, Peter grabbed Tony’s hand.

Tony seemed to freeze at the contact, but didn’t pull away, witch Peter took as a good sign.

That hand. It was his anchor. everything was ok. He wasn’t alone anymore. he grabbed the as a lifeline, not daring to look up, not daring to hope. Another small hand started to rock his hair, slowly, hesitantly. Tony, in an epiphany of courage, rose his head, and saw peter knelling ,next to his bed looking at him with worry.

“Hey” smiled Peter.

Tony just stared at him, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he slowly rose his hand to cup Peter’s cheek. Peter smiled and leaned to the contact and shily raised his own hand to cup Tony’s bony one. Slowly, Tony then pulled Peter in a hug. It wasn’t has strong and desperate as when Peter had firs appeared, it was more soft, hesitant, as if Tony thought that squeezing too hard would make Peter disappear. Tony slowly moved, indicating Peter to lay down on the bed next to him. A few moments later, Peter started to break the hug, and as soon as he did a terrified Tony grabbed both of his hands.

They laid there, smiling and crying,  looking at each other and holding each other’s hands for a long time, in silence.

Tony finally broke the silence

“I missed you so much”

“I missed you too, b-but I’m back, and I’m gonna stay right here”

“Right here” repeated Tony, contently smiling and squeezing Peter’s hands before closing his eyes “right here with me”.

“yeah” Peter said. He then pulled one of his hands on Tony’s chest, just above his heart, then pressed a quick kiss on Tony’s wet cheek and closed his own eyes.

“Right here with you”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again!
> 
> please, feel free to give me prompts and ideas if ou want me to write something! 
> 
> Thanks for reviewing!!
> 
> XXX

**Author's Note:**

> Hey again!  
> Let me know if you want me to do a second chapter in witch Tony wakes up and Peter is not there so our favorite Star freaks out but then Peter appears :)  
> XXX


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